Made In L.A.: Laura Riboli, 45/60

Made In L.A. is coming to the Hammer, Barnsdall Park, LAXART, and billboards around town on June 2 and will showcase sixty emerging, under-recognized Los Angeles artists–one of which will be voted to win a $100,000 prize. In order to help you make an educated vote this summer, we’re counting down to Made In L.A. by showcasing each artist participating in the biennial.

Laura Riboli is a video artist whose works are minimalistic geometric meditations, each analyzing shape and movement by transforming and moving them in space.

Riboli’s work displays constant transformation. Her pieces are static videos, projections whose characters of shapes and objects and sometimes people play between holding their shape and transitioning to another. They have a homemade feel to them while retaining a high art whimsy, some falling between 1970s stop-motion films from Sesame Street and performance artist/dancer/geometrist Michael Moschen’s work. Rolls, Tosses, Rotations (Ball) and Rolls, Passages, Rotations, Walkovers (Hoop) are an excellent example of this, which see shapes juxtaposed with a performer seeking to imitate the forms of the shapes and moving with them. The shape of each compliments the other and show how the perfect forms accent the human form and, in a way, show that we’re all imperfect.

Ziggurat, below, shows the transformation of pillars assumedly made out of aluminum foil from polished, soft metal to crumpled, tangled objects to a pristine tower and back. The piece is like her artistic thesis, praising geometry for its beauty but showing how fleeting perfection is. The video is also very lighthearted and kind of funny, the stop-motion lending itself to showing the invisible human hands at work to create it, which are–again–an imperfect human form. Disappear has a similar feeling but with a big punctuated moment of funny that seems to really contextualize all of her work. The video sees a silver almost crystal like shape traveling over landscapes and into space. As ArtForum notes, the piece goes along very smoothly and beautifully until one point when the shape stalls and is assisted by a human hand entering the frame. It’s a funny moment which shows the personality in her shapes.

Laura Riboli’s work is really smart and fun and, of course, super great video work as she is one a USC Roski video MFA, a group that are some of our favorite working video artists. She’s also totally an LA girl, born here and having attended Otis for her BFA. Her work has this quality to it that I don’t think I can articulate but it seems very self-aware and lighthearted, which we love. We’re sure her work, as all her work is, won’t necessarily be about Los Angeles; however, it’s awesome to see a homegrown talent like her at Made In L.A..